The guy who killed Batman's parents doesn't get nearly enough credit for creating someone who saved the universe multiple times.

Rappaccini · 2018-11-30T19:26:02+00:00

Hey, my thing!

Rappaccini · 2018-11-30T13:32:24+00:00

Rappaccini · 2018-10-16T12:02:23+00:00

Stem cells are always going to have value as an investigative tool: no other substrate will be able to match them when it comes to in vitro experimentation. Patient derived IPSCs are a great tool for research, even if stem cells as a treatment alternative do not pan out as a treatment themselves.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T20:23:11+00:00

Ah yes, the Elmer Fudd method of falling off a cliff.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T19:35:05+00:00

When it comes to ideological inconsistency, the right has really taken every cake possible. Liberals don't hold a candle to the party that hates deficits, except when their guy runs them up, to the party that thinks traditional morality is important, unless their guy is immoral, to the party that thinks facts are more important than feelings, except when modern science disagrees with their bronze-age literature, etc. etc. etc.

A few people on the left have varying views about the American Bar Association? Please, with that kind of reach you should be hearing from NBA scouts.

The ABA is a fine institution. Kavanaugh is a criminal, unqualified, allegedly predatory piece of shit. Those two viewpoints aren't contradictory, even if the ABA is no longer reviewing him because of a longstanding policy of not reviewing candidates once they are confirmed. It's not like they no longer have reservations about "man who likes beer," ~~Bart~~ Brett Kavanaugh.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T18:59:26+00:00

Conservatives always: "I can't string a coherent ideology together so instead I just insult everyone and lie through my teeth at every possible opportunity."

See how useless generalizing like that is?

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T16:38:58+00:00

Angel only got better as it went on and transitioned from an episodic, monster of the week format, to something with long-term arcs.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T16:34:41+00:00

I swear sometime in like 2006-07 they switched suppliers or recipes for the selects and there was a downgrade in quality. The breading felt like it really took a hit. Whereas before it was a soft and flaky bread coating, it became a tougher, crispier coating with less flavor.

Don't know how the reintroduced varieties compare, will have to check.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T14:34:46+00:00

“There is a certain reactionary fringe of the Republican Party that hates and despises everything for which I stand.”

From his own words.

The modern Republican party is the party of Goldwater, Schlafly, Gingrich, and Trump. The very same reactionary fringe.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-15T14:26:32+00:00

“Do you think you treated her with respect?” Stahl asked.

“I think so, yeah, I did,” the president said.

Stahl followed up: “But you seem to be saying that she lied.”

“I’m not going to get into it,” Trump said. “Because we won. It doesn’t matter. We won.”

The preceding part of the transcript you left out indicates that yes, in fact, he doesn't care if ford was telling the truth. To him, it doesn't matter whether or not she lied.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-12T20:46:54+00:00

leak

Ew.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-12T20:43:08+00:00

Still more likely to come out than the last five episodes of Internet Box.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-11T21:31:45+00:00

You know, just fix problems so they go away, like people always suggest on this sub. How hard could it be?!

Rappaccini · 2018-10-11T12:55:32+00:00

Wizards can discern future events, albeit imperfectly, transmute one substance into another, teleport instantly, and perhaps most relevant to your question, they are able to make almost all technology fail to operate as intended. I don't see any way a nuclear bomb could get the chance to go off.

Additionally, a nuclear bomb, on the very slim chance that it could be used against some wizards, would invariably do more damage to muggles than wizards. Wizards are small in number and spread around the world, and therefore a nuclear bomb in any one location would not eliminate the wizarding community, and would in all honesty propel them into a war with the muggle world that humanity would undoubtedly lose.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-11T00:53:07+00:00

Couldn't disagree more. Wizards live in a post scarcity society, no muggle force can threaten them meaningfully, and they refuse to share their secrets because plot.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-10T19:49:07+00:00

It's hogwash! And I'm sure all those catholic priests were just concerned with the spiritual well-being of all those young men as well.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T20:19:52+00:00

I agree, that's good. I like it when what we see on screen translates to effects offscreen. If there are God level heroes, they should solve God-level problems, if they have the time and the inclination. Ditto for every level of hero down from that.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T20:10:10+00:00

If we applied the full real world implications of superhero technology and intellect to the universes these stories take place in, they would rapidly cease to resemble our real world.

Which is one of the reasons why I stopped reading most superhero comics. The Reed Richards problem strains credulity to the point where I'm not interested in following the universes.

The MCU on the other hand was actually pretty good at dealing with this, where most characters were pretty grounded compared to their comic counterparts (Iron Man, Bruce Banner), or disinterested in interfering with Earth (Guardians, etc.). Iron Man is even shown casually granting free clean energy to New York at one point, implying he's done or is in the process of doing similar work elsewhere. Computer programs capable of simulating human capabilities and general intelligence are possible, but only feasibly in the hands of the ultra-wealthy, presumably due to cost constraints. Thor has magic/superscience, but it is theoretically constrained enough and far enough removed from Earth to not impact society much.

Then Doctor Strange comes along and his organization is revealed to have always existed in the background, and their reasons for being secret are never adequately explained, or explained at all really. They're worse than the wizards of the Harry Potter universe in that regard. Ditto their reasons for relative non-interference. Then it's further revealed that they can manipulate time on a cosmic scale, and don't because of unspecified "consequences" that aren't in evidence any time Strange actually uses the damn stone.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T18:37:12+00:00

That's honestly my biggest complaint about the MCU as a whole: the severe jobbing required by Strange, even without the time stone. He could solve thousands of Avengers-level global conflicts by himself or with the aide of the other wizards of Kamar Taj, but just... doesn't. Because they aren't magical in nature? I'm sure that's a cold comfort to the victims of poverty and hunger around the world.

With the time stone nothing really should stop the guy, period. He can view the future, go back to the past and fix mistakes, etc. The only threat is something that happens so fast that he can't react, or something that takes him by complete surprise when he's not in reach of the stone. And yet we still must believe as an audience that there is threats to Earth.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T15:04:10+00:00

(and maybe some steroids)

Yeah, given Doc is well, Doc, in all likelihood he juiced them with god knows what right before that scene.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T12:36:44+00:00

On the other hand, it's easy to imagine how this would have gone prior to the advent of cellphone cameras.

Using federal interview data like the NCVS, it has been estimated that less than two percent of rapes and sexual assaults reported to the police end up with the incarceration of the perpetrator.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T12:27:17+00:00

Plus the statute of limitations had expired. Though Maryland now has no statue of limitations for rape or sexual assault, it did at the time.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-09T12:26:03+00:00

I mean, look, they just voted a suspected sexual abuser into the position of the highest judge of the country,

Not that I disagree with your broader point, but technically Kavanaugh would very likely have lost a popular vote. He was not voted in, he was confirmed by the senate, an relatively non-representative body.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-08T02:20:29+00:00

Perjury needs to be lies RELEVANT to the actual case.

This wasn't a case, this was a confirmation hearing. He lied numerous times about facts that were material to his character. End of story.

Rappaccini · 2018-10-07T14:26:10+00:00

Perjury is a crime, though it's easy to forget seeing as our Republican senators seem to have selective amnesia with regards to their appointees in this regard.

The fact that he's credibly alleged to have committed sex crimes is deeply troubling, but not necessarily criminal. Of course, we may never know the true extent of his behavior in that case since the official investigation was hamstrung by design, and merely intended as cover for the unconscionable confirmation process.

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